The history books have always told us the British Empire arrived in India as conquerors. But newly unearthed Mughal-era documents suggest something more insidious: the British East India Company was built on the back of Indian labour, Indian resources, and Indian markets from the very start. The 1600s records, discovered in a crumbling archive in Delhi, reveal the Company's early trade in indigo, saltpetre, and cotton was not a neutral exchange of goods. It was a system that profited from the subcontinent's vast manufacturing base and its cheap, disciplined workforce.
For decades, the Company paid a pittance for high-quality finished cloth from Bengal, then sold it in London at a markup that would make modern fashion brands blush. The Mughal emperor, Jahangir, granted them trading rights in 1612 without realising the long-term cost. By 1650, the Company was already shipping 100,000 pieces of cloth a year. Meanwhile, records show that weavers in Dhaka were paid barely enough to survive. One British merchant noted, "The natives are so skilful and so poor, they will work for a handful of rice." That is the real economy: a global supply chain built on grinding poverty.
The documents also reveal an early form of union busting. The Company's agents would lock weavers in compounds to prevent them from selling to rival traders. When weavers protested, the Company called on Mughal officials to crush the strikes. The pattern is unmistakable. The East India Company did not create wealth; it transferred it. And that wealth paid for the mills of Lancashire, the warships of the Royal Navy, and the luxury of a new British elite.
These records are a stark reminder that the inequalities of today did not drop from the sky. They were built, brick by brick, in the 17th century. When we see the cost of living crisis in Britain, the wage stagnation, and the regional imbalance, we are seeing the ghost of the East India Company. The North of England was deindustrialised not by accident but by design, as capital flowed from Bengal to Birmingham. This history is not ancient. It is current. It is the reason my community in Yorkshire still feels the pinch while the City of London thrives.
The documents will be displayed at the British Museum later this year. But we do not need a museum to see the legacy. It is in the price of bread, the strength of unions, and the hollowed-out towns of the industrial North. The East India Company is gone, but its system of extraction lives on.
